by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 2, 2022 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes, Less than 500 calories
I made a sponge cake this morning using pureed orange and lemon carcasses that I keep in the freezer. Love your leftovers! When I’ve zested and juiced a lemon, or eaten an orange, I stash the peel in the freezer. When I want some, I simmer it in water until...
by Thrifty Lesley | Apr 11, 2022 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories
Cream of Cabbage Soup Cabbage is a very nutritious vegetable and has been eaten by people for 1000’s of years, currently consumed worldwide. One day last month, I had far too much white cabbage to be able to use it up before it went manky. So I decided to try...
by Thrifty Lesley | Apr 6, 2022 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Other
Fresh Ginger Tea How To Make Hot Ginger Tea I use a small glass tea pot of 450ml to make fresh ginger tea. By far the easiest way to store it is freezing fresh ginger whole. I pop it in just as it is – not wrapped, not peeled, and grate it on a fine grater...
by Thrifty Lesley | Mar 25, 2022 | All Recipes, Puddings / Desserts
Homemade, fresh lime simple syrup We are very fortunate in that a local church has started a community larder. Each morning, they pick up surplus groceries that would have gone to landfill from the Co-Op and lay it all out onThere were a few limes there this morning,...
by Thrifty Lesley | Mar 22, 2022 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Meal Plan 2
Vegan Couscous Salad How to make vegan couscous salad This is pretty simple and doesn’t take long. Put couscous in a bowl with oil and water. Add grated carrot. Cook some green peas (1 min in the microwave from frozen will do it) and add to the couscous If you have...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jan 27, 2022 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes, Less than 500 calories
I really like the carrot cake from Cheap Family Recipes. Like most carrot cakes, it doesn’t actually taste of carrots and I fell to wondering what other vegetables could be used in a similar way. At Christmas, I got lots of the very cheap vegetables on promotion...
by Thrifty Lesley | Dec 22, 2021 | All Recipes, Christmas, Less than 500 calories, Puddings / Desserts
I had surplus mincemeat from Christmas and decided to use some in a pudding. I have made chocolate roulades for some time and felt sure that swapping the cocoa for flour and using mincemeat and perhaps some apple too as the filling, as well as cream, would work very...
by Thrifty Lesley | Dec 18, 2021 | All Recipes, Christmas, Dinners
I was watching a programme on cranberries and what to do with them and one of the chefs talked about a creamy base of leeks, topped with a crumble mix. I thought it sounded really nice, but they hadn’t put that recipe on the internet for that programme, so I...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 30, 2021 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Meal Plan 10, Meal Plan 2
Olive, Soft Cheese and Cucumber Sandwich First written in August 2013, refreshed and updated December 2021 For quite a few years now, once a month, I have coffee with a friend in The Baytree, one of the independent little coffee shops in Heathfield. We were talking...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 29, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Meal Plan 2
Pasta with Olives, Tomato & Soft Cheese Post first written in September 2013. Refreshed and updated November 2021. This recipe makes a generous portion of pasta, dressed with olives, tomato puree and soft cheese. Very quick to make, just taking as long as the...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 27, 2021 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes, Less than 500 calories, Meal Plan 2
Raisin Biscuits Post originally published October 2013, refreshed and updated November 2021 These little biscuits are fun to make, especially if you make tiny hearts or teeny squares. Spice them up with cinnamon or mixed spice at Christmas time. Or see the variations...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 27, 2021 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Meal Plan 2, Sides
Caramelised Onions Post first written in January 2015, refreshed and updated November 2021 In Meal Plan 2, there are 750g of onions left after all the recipes have been made, so I thought I’d use them to make this very useful condiment to use as you wish...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 21, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners
Simple Vegan Red Lentil Tomato Dahl Post first written in July 2013, refreshed and updated in November 2021. Tomatoes, red lentils and a few spices made into dhal and served with brown rice. Quick, very cheap, and easy – what’s not to like? I like the dahl just on its...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 21, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Meal Plan 2
Salted Cashew Vegan Couscous Salad – warm or cold First written in August 2013, refreshed and updated in November 2021. I wanted to try a couscous salad that I have been doing for a while and see if I could get it sub 50p. Well, it worked out at 71p for the dish...
